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13 Of The Best Pet Names (For Humans) In Other Languages

Oh hey there, sugar. Nice of you to stop by. Would it be okay if I called you “pumpkin?”

Is that more cringey when used with casual acquaintances, or when used in earnest by real romantic couples?

Wouldn’t it be more fun if Americans just co-opted the word “poppet?” And what does it say about our generational divide that “beau” has morphed into “bae?”

Those are mostly rhetorical questions, but it turns out there’s a somewhat scientific reason why people use terms of endearment to speak to their loved ones. As Florida State University neuroanthropologist Professor Dean Falk explained to Broadly, baby talk plays an important role in language acquisition for infants, especially in terms of mother-child bonding. Falk believes adult baby talk is really just a way of drawing on those early feelings of love.

In an even more obvious sense, romantic pet names create little idiosyncratic worlds of intimacy for people. This seems to work, or at least correlate with stronger bonds between couples. Carol Bruess and Judy Pearson conducted a study of 154 couples in 1993. Generally speaking, the results supported the notion that satisfied couples used more “idioms” than unsatisfied couples, and that the couples who used the most idioms were usually the childless ones who had been married for less than 5 years.

But don’t worry — romance doesn’t have to steadily die over time. To keep your relationship exciting, try these foreign terms of endearment with your snuggle-buns.

Mon petit chou (French)

Literally, “my little cabbage.” Alternatively, ChouChou.

Mausebär (German)

“Mousebear.” You can call someone Maus, or you can call someone Bär. But why not just call them Mausebär?

Tamago gata no kao (Japanese)

“Egg with eyes.” This is a very nice compliment to pay a woman you love, because oval-shaped faces are considered very beautiful in Japan.

Paixão (Portuguese)

“Passion.” How’s that for raising the stakes?

Dropje (Dutch)

“Little licorice candy.” This, of course, depends on how much you enjoy licorice.

Want to learn more multilingual seduction strategies?

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Steph is a writer, lindy hopper, and astrologer. She’s also a language enthusiast who grew up bilingual and had an early love affair with books. She has mostly proved herself as a New Yorker, and she can introduce herself in Swedish thanks to Babbel. She also speaks Russian and Spanish, but she’s a little rusty on those fronts.

Steph is a writer, lindy hopper, and astrologer. She’s also a language enthusiast who grew up bilingual and had an early love affair with books. She has mostly proved herself as a New Yorker, and she can introduce herself in Swedish thanks to Babbel. She also speaks Russian and Spanish, but she’s a little rusty on those fronts.